The traditional midwife inherited the temple teachings of the high priestess - the one who walked the path into the essence of the women's mysteries. In birthing, the midwife again walks the path with the mother-to-be reliving and regaining her own knowing, as nature initiates the birthing woman into her own knowing that is, at once, individual and communal. This knowing, woman's knowing, is seldom written, for it is passed as living presence from one who knows to one who is ready to receive.
In its timeless ritual of incarnation/birth/rebirth, in the space between the silence and activity, the alchemy of midwifery occurs. In the surroundings of home, with those whom we love and trust, women's knowledge can be reclaimed and birth can be restored as the continuing pathway of women into the mysteries.
Let's look at the steps involved in restoring birth as a women's initiatory mystery. This heritage of women, can be recovered as her future path of power and wisdom.
The role/art of the traditional midwife included knowledge of the process of becoming a woman and the role played by a woman's sexuality. Menstruation, love making, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, mothering and menopause are all involved in a woman's sexual expression. These aspects of her sexuality can be understood by other women who have travelled the path.
The midwife is one who is able to be with-woman during those times of growth and unfolding. She understands the underlying forces at work during these times and can facilitate their expression so that the woman passes through the experience gathering the wisdom and insightfulness that are available to her via these processes.
Common female difficulties such as P.M.T., conditions of pregnancy such as toxaemia, high blood pressure, morning sickness, backache, birth complications, forceps deliveries, caesarean delivery, retained placenta, haemorrhage, post natal depression and breast feeding all stem from the incomplete expression of these experiences of living in a woman's body, either by the woman herself or by her ancestors.
The traditional midwife understands life in a unique and organic way. Her understandings come from the evolutionary expression of herself as a woman. Her embracing of her woman-ness in its many aspects equips her to be able to voyage with her sisters through their own deeper
un-foldings.
Her training crosses the millennia. She reaches into dimensions beyond the physical to enable the physical embodiment of the processes. Her understanding of the natural order unfolding during these key times in a woman's life, enables people to
re-access their experiences and heal old wounds.
Few women in our culture have experienced totally, that is, completely naturally, their baby's birth. Most have, locked inside them, these unexpressed and unexperienced forces. The release of these frees her psyche and her body to live more fully and happily in the present.
Traditional midwives see the process of giving birth as an initiation. An initiation takes a person into a new situation after which they have new knowledge and understanding about their reality. They are different afterwards. There is a period of preparation that involves self-exploration, completing
in-completions from the past so that the person in fully present There needs to be a willingness to let go of the past and their perceptions of self if they are to be fully initiated. They are accompanied by a guide - one who has gone before - during the preparatory phase and then accompanied by a guide to a doorway - but only the initiate can enter the doorway, alone.
In other times, in other cultures, it was the practice for the young woman to spend time in the women's temples. Here she would be instructed in certain practices such as exercises, chants, dance to direct her awareness to certain parts of her body and bring her into conscious communion with her inner mysteries. These teachings were given gradually as she grew and developed. She was introduced to practices that were time-honoured by her people and known to enhance happiness and health.
These people recognised the body as a temple in which the being lived and, just as we live in a house and are able to function in different rooms for different purposes, so too it was with the body. We have become alienated from our bodies. We have become full of judgements and fears about them.
When the midwife sees birth as a natural function of the woman's body and knows that with the right support most women have their babies naturally, then this is what happens. If, on the other hand, the midwife/obstetrician is focused on the foetal heart monitors, urine analyses, times and duration of contractions, complications, there is not space for the tuning in to what is actually happening. There is no trust in, or tuning into, the amazing capabilities of the human body.
Whereas a medically trained midwife may see that a uterus is not contracting efficiently, a traditional midwife may see that the woman is feeling unsafe, or is anxious about this baby she is carrying. She may be wanting somebody who is in the room to not be there, or she may be wanting somebody else to be there. The birthing woman's total being is the primary event. Most midwifery practice looks at secondary events that are expressions of the primary event.
The primary thing that is happening is available to the midwife if she is receptive to it. It is transmitted by a wavelength or vibration that she will "feel" or "see" or "intuit". To do this she must be able to let the information in, know how to understand it and how to respond appropriately. This we can see as the requirement for responsible practice - an ability to respond.
How is it then that some midwives can do this more easily than others? I think it is related to the degree to which she is in touch with, or tuned into, her own reality. Her reality is her own truth, a part inside her that she actually is, not something that she has had imposed on her from others, be they parents, schools, peers or society. We all have an inner knowing part that lives always inside us to which we have access in varying degrees. It is the development of this crucial part of a human being that leads to living in harmony with the natural order of things and enables manifestation of that order. Birth is an event where the natural order displays itself strongly and majestically and reminds us of what we are all a part of. It is crucial, in my view, that this happens as often as possible and it is the office of the midwife to facilitate this.
With the barrage of Western technological development which, in its own right is quite magnificent, the natural process of birthing the next generation has been undermined. The homebirth movement, to which we are committed, has been the guardian and keeper of the truth. Between us we have a vast store of knowledge and it is, I think, our task to teach this. We need many colleges of midwifery being established and open to all women who want to honour the midwife who dwells within. We need to remember that mid-wife means with-woman and it will be women themselves who claim their heritage and support each other and bring into their everyday lives the strength, power, wisdom and compassion of the midwife.
If this is to happen, women need to focus on this and put aside dissension towards each other. Solidarity and loving cheerfulness will bring about change more quickly than anything else. When we work together to support women giving birth, the power of creation lives vitally within us and there is nothing we cannot do.
A person who has birthed her own baby is a woman liberated from the constrictions of a society that says you must rely on things and people outside yourself. A baby born naturally knows that the natural order works for him/her and that it is his/her attunement to it that brings about his/her success.
As this planet heals herself and awakens us to our role as co-creators of our future, each of us becomes a midwife at the birth of the new.
Shivam Rachana (Edited from International Homebirth Conference, Sydney University)
